No Compromise on Reparations1 Knesset Session 77, 6.5.1952
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330 [28] No Compromise on Reparations1 Knesset Session 77, 6.5.1952 Speaker Ze’ev Sheffer: Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has the floor. MK Meir Argov (Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Mapai): Mr. Speaker, members of the Knesset, On 15.1.52 the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee made the following decision: “Following the government’s statement to the Knesset and the authority vested in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by the Knesset, and after the committee heard the preliminary assumptions according to which the government seeks to act, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee decides to authorize the government to act on the question of reparations from Germany, including the possibility of direct negotiations, in accordance with present needs and circumstances. Once the government has determined its plan of action for the first stage, a report will be submitted to the Committee.” In accordance with that decision, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee heard two reports on the stages of negotiations on reparations with the Bonn government and was provided with comprehensive information by the government in this regard. In light of those reports, I should note that in these negotiations the Israeli delegation appeared with national dignity and responsibility and conducted itself in accordance with the instructions given to it by the government and within the limits set by the Knesset through the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The full collaboration between the Israeli delegation and that of Jewish organizations from around the world should also be noted with great satisfaction. During the negotiations it transpired that the Bonn government set the overall sum of the reparations to Israel at less than the sum specified by our 1 Earlier on in this Knesset meeting, a no-confidence motion was forwarded by the Herut Party in protest against the government’s policy regarding negotiations with West Germany on reparations. The motion was defeated by 57 votes against 3 (43 abstained). DOI 10.1515/9783110255386.330, , published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. Knesset, 6.5.1952 331 government in its note to the occupying powers – the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France. In addition, the German delegation did not make a definite commitment that this sum would be paid but rather that it regards the sum determined – $715 million – as a nominal sum, in recognition of the debt only, without determining what sums will actually be paid. The German delegation decided that payments and dates would be conditional upon the settlement of Germany’s overall debt to various states that was deliberated at the London Conference. On this basis the Israeli delegation suspended the negotiations in order to receive fresh instructions from the government of Israel. After hearing the details of the negotiations, the committee proposed that the Knesset note the following decision: “The committee recommends to the government non-renewal of the negotiations between the Israeli and West German delegations until the Bonn government submits a clear and binding proposal to meet Israel’s claim for reparations, including dates of payment. The committee expresses its confidence that it will be given the opportunity of discussing such a proposal prior to a final government decision on whether to accept or reject it.” When the Knesset reached its decision on the reparations claim from Germany, it viewed the claim as restitution of part of what was plundered from the Jewish people by the German people, since the value of the Jewish property lost to the Nazis is greatly in excess of the sum that the Bonn government is required to pay. However, we emphasized more than once that neither the government of Israel nor the Jewish people in the Diaspora view these reparations as atonement or conciliation for mass murder. With this decision, the Knesset viewed it as a great privilege to determine a historical fact that there is a claimant for the plundered Jewish property and that the government of Israel together with world Jewish organizations would claim reparations. The State of Israel and its people do not imagine that this obligation can be avoided by unrealistic assurances, evading payment within a reasonable period and by delaying tactics. We think that we must again exert all possible pressure – including world opinion and the influence of the occupying powers – on the German government and people to meet this claim. This House would do well to unite behind this claim. The Bonn government should know that it will not evade the issue and that we will continue to voice this claim everywhere and at every opportunity, for the plundered property, which is ours, will be channeled to building the Jewish homeland and the rehabilitation of the survivors of the Nazi sword, and that all the aforementioned is apart from the claim by Jewish communities throughout the world. From this podium we must announce to the entire world the renewal of our claim with all our moral, Jewish and political force. We must see to it that all available political factors are harnessed towards this purpose. 332 Knesset, 6.5.1952 I recommend that the Knesset accept the committee’s proposal. I will respond to the rest of the reservations after hearing their rationale. MK Yaakov Riftin (Mapam): Members of the Knesset, the crisis in the negotiations between the Israeli and Germany delegations occurred at a very early stage. It seems that even the most pessimistic members in this House assumed that the Bonn government would make use of more complex and honorable means of camouflaging its intentions. The Germans advanced an incredibly satanic proposal. They proposed a moral agreement between the Bonn government and the government of Israel regarding a certain sum which would be negotiated by both governments together at the London conference. This means that we are to award moral and political rehabilitation to the Bonn government without any concrete financial conclusions and that Bonn and the government of Israel would be fighting together against the occupying powers. The State of Israel should not stop its struggle for obtaining reparations to the state and the Jewish people. But it should do so through the occupying powers. Direct negotiations should be terminated. It should not be forgotten that while the concrete financial significance of these negotiations has declined, their negative political weight has soared. Dr. Adenauer and his government are desperately attempting to make West Germany the main basis for starting a new world war. Is there any justification for conducting negotiations through which the prestige of this government, which sees itself as a vital factor in the preparations for a third world war, is enhanced? If only there had been at least some economic benefit from the continuation of negotiations! But it is already obvious today that any such benefit would be strictly limited, and thus the Knesset must ask itself whether such a benefit should be preferred to continuing the Jewish people’s consistent struggle against the revival of Nazism, against making Germany an aggressive base, against the plan of igniting a new world war. The Knesset must decide to stop the negotiations with the Bonn government. MK Yochanan Bader (Herut): Mr. Speaker, members of the Knesset, what are Germans interested in most? They are interested in the negotiations themselves so that they can sit with the Jews, so that the world can see that the Jews do not hate them all that much, that the Jews relate to Germans as decent debtors who can be trusted, that they can be negotiated with, and everything will be fine. That is the most important thing for the Germans. The second, no less important factor, is the agreement itself. The third factor – as there is to be an agreement – is the step towards conciliation, and anything you say from this podium will not change it. When there is an agreement with Germans on $700 million, it will mean compromise, forgiveness, peacemaking, and at the very least the opening Knesset, 6.5.1952 333 of a path towards compromise and forgiveness. The fourth factor, which they are not interested in at all, is real payment. And finally, what they most certainly do not want is quick payment. Due to this order of priorities, and since the chronological order runs from the negotiations to the agreement and then to the payment, we – that is you, the government – must give the Germans everything they want in advance. You have already given them the contact and the togetherness, and you have not received a thing. You have already given the Germans the agreement – perhaps there will be an agreement – but an agreement is not payment. Once an agreement is reached, what will the Germans care about paying or not paying? If they do not pay they will be bad debtors, but what do the murderers, the Nazis care, the people who brought about a world war and murdered six million Jews and certainly many more millions of others. What do they care if the Jews say the German debtor cannot be trusted? The world has known this for a long time: they have never paid their debts, and they will not pay you this time, either. But they will have their negotiations, the Germans will have direct contact, the Germans will possibly have an agreement. This is the road you are taking, you no longer think about honor or pride, and you are under pressure. Pressure of this kind, gentlemen, is a very bad counselor. You are taking a very bad road, and not only will you hurt tens of thousands of people like me in this country, not only will you sully national honor, not only will you aid the Germans, but you will obtain no money.